psychopathy Flashcards
What is a psychopath
Social predators that charm, manipulate and plow their way through life and violate social norms without guilt or regret
Primary psychopath
True psychopath
Psychological, emotional, cog, biological differences
Secondary psychopath
Emotional instability
Not a real psychopath
Rooted in parental abuse and rejection
Dyssocial psychopath
Not a real psychopath
Learned antisocial behaviour (gangs)
Sociopath
Chronically breaks the law
Replaced by ASPD
Some clinicians believe it is still a personality disorder → a less severe form of psychopathy, learn the situations of empathy and change their behavior
ASPD
Behavioural and criminal indicators
ALWAYS involves criminal behaviour
May not be a psychopath
3.5% gen population considered a psychopath
50-80% prison pop
Psychopathy
Behavioural, emotional, cognitive indicators
May not be criminal
Prison pop: 11-25%
General population: 1% *
Almost always also has ASPD
Differ in degree, not kind
Hare’s Psychopathy Symptoms (PCL-R)
Glibness/superficial charm
Grandiose sense of self-worth
Pathological lying
Conning/manipulative
Lack of remorse or guilt
Shallow affect
Callousness/lack of empathy
Failure to accept responsibility for actions
Promiscuous sexual behavior
Lack of realistic, long-term goals
Poor behavioral controls
High need for stimulation/prone to boredom
Irresponsibility
-focus: personality traits + measurable behavs
-tool: psychopathy checklist (PCL-R)
-emphasis: behav traits and antisocial actions
-pop: criminal and forensic
-approach: objective, empirical
Cleckley’s Psychopathy Symptoms
Superficial charm and good intelligence
Pathological egocentricity
Untruthfulness and insincerity
Manipulative
Lack of remorse or guilt
General poverty of affective reactions
Unresponsiveness in interpersonal relationships
Unreliability
Impersonal sex life
Failure to follow any life plan
Impulsivity
Inadequately motivated antisocial behavior
Poor judgment
Absence of delusions
Absence of anxiety
Bizarre behavior after drinking alcohol
-focus: personality traits + emotional deficits
-tool: clinical observations
-emphasis: mask of sanity, inner pathology
-pop: general and clinical
-approach: subjective, descriptive
-Interpersonal symptoms (glibness/superficial charm, grandiose sense of self worth, pathological lying, conning/manipulative)
FACET 1 (Factor 1)
Style of interacting with others
Appear well educated
Talk their way out of trouble
Appear verbally skilled, but speech is absent of substance (jump between subjects), logically inconsistent phrases
Attribute their problems to others
Disregard for the truth
Lie, cheat often and easily
Pathological liars (lie to lie)
Unreliable, irresponsible, unpredictable
Ted Bundy interviews!
Affective symptoms (lack of remorse or guilt, emotionally shallow, callous/lack of empathy, failure to accept responsibility for own actions)
FACET 2 (Factor 1)
Emotional responsibilities and feelings (love, sadness or fear)
Cannot feel genuine affection
Lack range of emotions
Flat emotional affect
Complete lack of remorse and guilt
Likeable but can’t keep deep relations
Little contact with family and change residence frequently
Superficial appreciation for kindness
Externalize blame on family and community for the way they are
Absurd risks for no gain, take pleasure in the shock produced for others
Behavioural symptoms (need of stimulation/proneness to boredom, parasitic lifestyle, Lack of realistic, long term goals, impulsivity, irresponsibility)
LIFESTYLE –> FACET 3 (Factor 2)
Observable and characteristic manner of behaving
Cyclical impulsivity
Bad temper → impulsive violence
‘Unprofessional’ criminal (spontaneous serious crimes for immediate satisfaction)
Lacks long range goals
Excessive use of instrumental aggression (purposeful, goal related aggression)
Triarchic Model
boldness, meaness, disinhibition
Boldness (not negative in psychopathy)
Fearlessness
Success at negotiating social interactions
Remain calm and focused (high psi or life threatening situations)
Recover rapidly from stressful events (crisis management)
Seek unfamiliarity
Effective in political and corporate leadership
meaness
Deficient empathy
Disdain for attachments with others
Empowerment through cruelty
Excitement seeking
Extreme arrogance, physical cruelty
Crime and delinquency in actively hurting others
Disinhibition
Impulsiveness
Inability to regulate emotions
Hostility and mistrust
Lack of behavioural restraints
High in boldness and meanness
Elevations in all 3 is challenging to name the specific psychopath
ANTISOCIAL—> FACET 4 (Factor 2)
-poor behav control
-early behav problems
-juvenile delinquency
-revocation of conditional release
-criminal versatility
Psychopathy checklist (20 item)
-devised by Hare
- 20 items on a 0-2 scale
-30+ = psychopath
0 = trait is absent
1 = inconsistent
2 = consistently present
PCL-R criticism
Psychopaths not involved in criminal behaviour
Possible gender bias bc female psychopaths exhibit different affective and behavioural characteristics
What scores below 30?
Evaluated on criminals
Avr person scores a 4
20-29 = sociopathy
3-4% of pop score in this range
Criminal psychopaths
Not every psychopath is a criminal and not every serious criminal is a psychopath
1.5-2x crimes committed than non-psychopath criminals
Live by their own rule
Instrumental violence
Criminal versatility
Violence of their crimes can be compared to non-psychopaths
Criminal psychopaths vs non-psychopathic criminals
Criminal psychopaths:
-Sex crimes are more violent, brutal, unconventional, and sadistic
* Psychopathic sex offenders motivated by thrill seeking, not arousal
* Murders are more sadistic and brutal
* Derive pleasure from sexual and non-sexual violence
* Violence is a form of revenge or retribution
* Violence directed at men who are strangers
* Instrumental violence
* Serial murder
Non-psychopathic criminals
* Murders and assaults occur during domestic disputes and emotional arousal
* Reactive violence
* Against people they know
Interpersonal violence
Recidivism (tendency to return to offending)
Don’t change behaviour in prison, or after release
33% violated another crime
65% compared to 25% of non psychopath
Just as likely to receive parole because of their ability to charm others
Female psychopaths
Half the rate of males
Different behavioural patterns
Affective importance –? High levels of callousness, low empathy
Lack of realistic long term goals
Sexually promiscuous
Subtle and skillful in their aggression
Many of their harmful effects are not noticeable by authorities
Rely on relational aggression to get their way
Experienced greater victimisation in environment
Begin offending career later and
recidivate less often
Kayla Bourque
May never have developed attachment bonds (adoption)
Admitted to wanting to hurt someone
Attempted to strangle psychiatric patient
Killed family pets
Sexual sadist
‘Kill kit’ with plan to kill homeless person
Affectionless psychopath
Currently on parole in the Lower Mainland
Childhood of the Psychopath
Begins in childhood
More likely to have experienced family difficulties and negative school experience
Symptoms of hyperactivity, impulsivity, inattention and conduct problem
Childhood abuse
Examine LCP offenders (probably psychopath)
Manifest antisocial behaviours in their childhood
neurological : difficult temperament, learning problems, ADHD
Sadistic and manipulative
Juvenile psychopathy (white, adult males)
Does juvenile psychopathy exist
–> Adult psychopaths begin offending early
Can adult psychopathic feature be found in juveniles
–> Or are these traits just part of normal adolescent development
–> In children, these traits can indicate coping with abuse
If the traits can be identified, is it ethical to label a juvenile as a psychopath?
–> Misuse of labels can lead to improper treatment in CJS
–> No attempt at psychological treatment or recovery
PCL-YV (youth version) supports juvenile psychopathy construct
–> Callous-unemotional traits, narcissism, impulsivity,
Psychopathy across the lifespan
Stable ages 7-24 and usually age 40
Adolescent and adult psychopathic traits similar
Decline may be due to learning to avoid CJS
Behaviour hasn’t changed
Causes of psychopathy
Complex interaction of biopsychological, social and learning factors + theoretical explanations
- temperament, birth difficulties → affects nervous system
Early dmg in prefrontal cortex
-theoretical explanations
Hemispheric differences
Left:
Verbal and language functions
* Self-inhibition
* Psychopaths deficient in linguistic processing
* Less accurate at reading facial emotional expressions
* Emotional paradox à can talk about emotion but cannot experience
Right:
- Nonverbal functions
* Understanding and communicating emotions
* Do not experience emotions strongly
hemispheres must be balanced
-Psychopaths exhibit hemispheric asymmetry
* Imbalance with language processing and emotional or arousal states *
Left-hemisphere activation hypothesis → deficits in left hemisphere tasks
Lykken’s fearlessness model (ANS)
-Anxiety reduction necessary to learning to avoid stressful stimuli
-Electronic maze experiment to test avoidance learning
-Psychopaths are incapable of learning to avoid painful shocks
-Under-responsive autonomic nervous system so they don’t learn to avoid aversive situations
-Fearlessness model a failure to experience fear increases psychopath’s likelihood of committing criminal behaviour
-Fearlessness is a key component, but cannot account for everything
-Too simplistic
Hare’s hypoemotionality model
-Emotional deficits increase likelihood of committing criminal behav bc they lack feelings for others and experience no stress about causing harm
-Similar physiological response to interesting events but reduced response to stressful, serious occasions
-Fail to experience the full impact of any kind of emotion
-May be born with hyperemotionality
Newman’s response modulation model
Intensify response
Impaired ability to monitor and adjust behaviour
Disregard factors that would stop non-psychopaths
Don’t evaluate consequences
Theory explains impulsive behaviour
Hostile Attribution Bias
Interpret neutral or ambiguous actions of others as aggressive or antagonistic
View world as hostile and inhospitable
Does not explain why psychopaths commit violent acts
BAUMEISTERS’ THREATENED EGOTISM MODEL
Aggressive rxn if pride is hurt
Seen in narcissistic, grandiose people
Act violently if insulted
May explain why psychopaths commit revenge violence
TREATMENT for adult psychopaths
Extreme, qualitatively distinct category of offenders
Persistent across the lifespan
Biological causes that can’t be changed by psychosocial intervention
Some more likely to engage in violent crime if they receive treatment
Adult psychopaths not responsive to treatment
Lying, conning, manipulativeness makes them treatment resistant
TREATMENT for JUVENILE psychopaths
Hypothesis is that juveniles will respond better to prevention and treatment strategies
Children with CU (callous unemotional) traits respond to reward-driven interventions
Insensitive to punishment
Adolescents have minimal success and require intensive interventions
Duration, training of staff…etc
